[designs]

Wondering if anyone has tried this to help with depression

[CamW]

I have known about SAM-e (s-adenosylmethionine) for over 20 years. It was touted as a depression wonder drug in the mid-1980s for about 6 months, then I didn't hear about it again until the early-1990s. I have heard testimonials from people that it did work for them, but not for severe depression and not over the longterm. This leads me to believe that there was, in many cases, some placebo effect going on.

I do believe that SAM-e has been touted as an anti-inflammatory, as well, but I have never seen any reputable scientific evidence of it's efficacy in this either.

I have read some uncontrolled trials of SAM-e in both depression and arthritis where the "researchers" claimed to see both antidepressant activity and antiarthritic activity in their studies. These "studies" had no control group, no baseline was done on the degree of depression or amount of pain prior to the start of the study, and no formal or proper statistical criteria for assessing amount of improvement (they just asked the test subjects if they noticed improvement).

Also, SAM-e does breakdown rather rapidly, and since there are no quality control measures required for "supplements", it is difficult to tell if the tablet actually contains the dose that is stated on the bottle. I would be very leery of buying any SAM-e that did not have an expiry date on the bottle (or an expiry date that is greater than 2 years).

SAM-e is probably a fairly safe drug, but does it help in depression? I tend to think not. Talk therapy, be it professionally with a psychologist or therapist, or informally by talking out your problems with a good friend, is probably a much more effective way to reach remission from depression. I would not even consider taking SAM-e if the depression was of the moderate or serious variety (IMO).

I hope that this is of some help. - Cam